Some days you just need to take a break. Today was the perfect example. In the morning I walked around Andrassy Street to try to find a “bridge piece” for my glasses. One side of my nose was soar and “bingo” when there’s no pad left the raw metal doesn’t feel that great after a while. The funny thing is when I was in Tanzania I found the transparent piece of soft plastic on the floor. It looked like there was an obvious purpose for the little orb but I couldn’t figure it out. So, I made the conscious decision to leave it behind on the table in my room. Maybe this piece had meaning to someone else. Actually, it would have meaning to “me and turn into a multi-national search for a part acquired in Hong Kong, with my new glasses, and found nowhere else since.
The afternoon was spent watching the English Football Association final between Chelsea and Manchester United. The Budapest Irish Bar was the official location and it was reasonably packed with supporters. The weighting was considerably lopsided as there were only four Chelsea supporters and the rest Manchester United boosters. So the four of us basically sat on our hands as the match wore on. The first 45 minutes were incredibly dull, so much so that the commentators were even making comments about the fans falling asleep. This was followed by a very active second half but the score was still nil, nil. Finally, with three minutes left in the second overtime, Didier Dogbra outwrestled the Man-U defenders and keeper to barely flip the ball into the right side crease of the net. Four spontaneous cheers rang out in an otherwise silent pub. We were back to sitting on our hands for the next nail biting three minutes, then smiled at each other through the haze of smoke and Manchester grumblings.
Having overexposed many of my nightscape city photos from the previous evening, I set out to rectify the blunder.
The very tricky part about shooting Budapest at night is that some buildings are lit with warm yellow hues and others in stark cold white. If there is a shot with both, then the balance is a tough compensation game.
The world of 35MM film seemed to be much more forgiving, but with the synthetically managed control of digital, even with the freedom of setting exposure, the metering doesn’t appear that exact.
Returning to the hostel, I was hungry. John had found the perfect gyro place. Ever the food skeptic, the challenge was “on”. We walked about a mile to the Istanbul Gyro Shop. He was absolutely correct. These were the best gyros ever! The separation point from the seemingly endless consumption in Greece and Turkey was that these had shredded cabbage, tomatoes, onion, chicken, and the combination of tahene (sp?) and spicy red chili sauce. Wow!
(This pick was taken during the following day, but the same restaurant.)
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